The Rozhdestveno estate belongs to the neighbourhood
of the village of Siverskaya. This area has been given the
name of "Little Switzerland" due to the scenery
hilly banks of local streams and rivers covered with rich
vegetation and the peculiar microclimate.

The Rozhdestveno estate, owing its name
to the Rozhdestva Bogoroditsy Church (Church of the Nativity
of Our Lady), was laid by N. Efremov, the head of Count A.Bezborodko's
office, in 1787. It has changed the owners several times until
being bought by Nabokov's grandfather Ivan Rukavishnikov,
a gold manufacturer and millionaire.

The beautiful estate house on the high bank
of the river soared among linden-trees and oaks.

Its lay-out in the so called Italian style
has been preserved since the times of the first owner. Three
facades of the house were decorated with porticos supported
by Ionic columns and the main facade with the wide front staircase
had a columned loggia. All porticos were crowned with triangular
frontons. A rectangular belvedere, an indispensable detail
of the late 18th century estates, with a by-pass gallery towered
above the roof.

The big hall intended for balls and receptions
with the by-pass gallery at the first floor level was designed
as the center of the house. Ceremonial rooms were situated
on the ground floor, while premises of the first floor made
up the living space. Household facilities were placed in the
basement.

A park of the landscape type was laid southwest
of the house. It was designed using the natural forest tract
bounded with local relief and existing roads. Axled and ring
alleys were arranged in the park and a parterre lawn with
the main drive - in front of the house.

A lot of household constructions including
a poultry-yard, stables and green-houses were built in the
estate when it belonged to the Rukavishnikovs.

Construction of the new Rozhdestva Bogoroditsy
Church was initiated and sponsored by Ivan Rukavishnikov.
It was consecrated in 1883. Later the burial-vault of the
Rukavishnikovs family was placed next to the church.

The
history of the Rozhdestveno estate in the 20th century

The Rozhdestveno estate was inherited by
Vassily Rukavishikov after his father's death in 1901. For
the most time he lived abroad and died in Italy in 1916. With
no children of his own, he willed his entire property including
Rozhdestveno to his dear nephew Vladimir Nabokov.

It was not long though that Vladimir owned
Rozhdestveno. In 1917 the Socialist revolution broke out and
the estate was nationalized. In 1919 the Nabokovs were forced
to leave Russia forever. The house was decreed a museum by
local authorities. The family property and belongings were
sorted out. Pieces of greater value were handed over to the
Gatchina Palace -Museum and those considered of no value were
either distributed among organizations or sold out. In 1924
books, paintings, furniture and photo-albums were removed
from the estate but, unfortunately, their location remains
unknown.

During Great Patriotic War a German unit
was quartered in the estate.

When retreating, the fascists tried to destroy
the larger premises of the estate but it was only the bridge
that was blown up. However, the air-blast destroyed one of
the house facades and restoration was conducted after the
war.

The
Batovo estate

Batovo was a family estate of the Nabokovs.

Since 1800 it has been owned by the Ryleevs
family. It was often visited by Russian poet Kondraty Ryleev,
one of the leaders of the Decembrists - a nobility conspiracy
against the tsarist family. On the Decembrists uprising being
crushed, Kondraty Ryleev was executed. Hence the name of the
main alley in the Batovo estate park - Alley of the Hanged
- and the name of one of the rooms - Room of Ghosts.

Batovo was bought by Baroness Nina Korf
in the mid 19th century. She later sold it to her daughter
Maria and her daughter's husband - Dmitry Nabokov. One of
their children, Vladimir Nabokov, became the leader of the
Party of Constitutional Democrats and a member of the Provisional
Government in 1917. His son, who was also given the name of
Vladimir, was destined to be a famous writer.

After her husband's death in 1904, Maria
Korf still lived in the estate all the year round. She was
a remarkable person. As locals recalled, she used to swim
in the Oredezh river till its freezing-over and even shot
at wolves. Every summer a lot of her grandchildren came to
the "dacha" and she built a separate house not far
from the main building to stay there in her own world.

Besides the manor and detached house of
Maria Korf, there was a lot of household constructions in
the park.

After the revolution a local community house
was arranged in the estate but it burnt down in the fire in
1925.

The
Vyra estate

The Vyra estate lying not far from Batovo
got its name from the village of Vyra located in 2 kilometres.
It belonged to Ivan Rukavishnikov and was his daughter Elena's
dowry when she married Vladimir Nabokov in 1898. They met
each other when cycling around Batovo and Vyra.

Five children were born into their family,
one of them being Vladimir Nabokov, a future writer, poet,
translator and entomologist. Later on, Vladimir pictured the
magic world of the old estate in his writings. The lambent
and moving description of the house of his childhood can be
found in his novel "Mashen'ka".

A veterinary college was arranged in the
Vyra estate after the revolution.

The building has not survived through the
years of Great Patriotic War. The area was captured by the
Germans, and the headquarters of General von Paulus was set
up in the estate. It was burnt down in the battles of 1944.

Vladimir
Nabokov

As Vladimir Nabokov mentioned, his life
was divided into four equal periods - Russian, German, American
and Swiss ones.

He was born on April 23, 1899 in St.Petersburg.

Between 1911 and 1916 he was a student at
the Tenishevsky College in St.Petersburg. He began writing
back at school and in 1916 his first poems were published
in 500 copies. In late 1917 the Nabokovs found themselves
in Crimea and left Russia in March 1919.

Vladimir Nabokov entered the Trinity College
of Cambridge University in 1919. When at the college, he majored
in Russian and French literature. Being a student, he wrote
verse penetrated with the feeling of loneliness, very often
depicting his beloved Vyra. As he later marked, "the
true story of my being at an English university was the story
of my travail to hold Russia".

After graduating with honours in 1923, he
moved to Berlin where his father has been editing "Rul'(Rudder)"
newspaper, one of the most known of more than 40 Russian language
periodicals published in Berlin of those days. On January
7, 1920 the first publication of Vladimir Nabokov under the
name of Vl. Sirin appeared on its pages. He sent verse, reviews
and chess problems to "Rul'". The first novel by
Nabokov, "Mashen'ka", was printed by the "Slovo(Word)"
publishers in 1926.

In 1925 he married Vera Slonim, daughter
of a lawyer and timber merchant. In 1934 a son named Dmitry
was born into their family. Both in Berlin and Paris, where
they moved in 1937, the living was made mostly on translating
and teaching English, French and tennis.

Escaping from fascist occupation, the family
moved to the USA in 1940 and in 1945 Nabokov became a US citizen.
He worked for the Museum of Comparative Zoology of Harvard
University in 1942-1948, was a professor at Cornwell University
in 1948-1958 and taught literature at Harvard University in
1951-1952.

When living in the USA and later in Switzerland,
Vladimir Nabokov not only created his own writings, both in
English and Russian, but made a great input in introducing
western world to classical Russian literature. He wrote a
book about Nikolai Gogol, translated "Slovo o polku Igoreve"("Oration
on the Prince Igor's regiment") and verse by Aleksandr
Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov and Fiodor Tyutchev into English.
In 1964 his English translation of the Pushkin's novel in
verse "Evgeny Onegin" with detailed commentaries
was published.

Vladimir Nabokov died on July 2, 1977 in
Vienna and was buried in Switzerland.